Raisins they are a rum-soaking

I’ve never been a big fan of Christmas Fruit Cake.  I mean, really.  Fruit.  Inside cake.  When it’s so good outside of cake...why would you?  But Jbird loves it, especially his Grandma’s recipe.  We even had to have it as one of the layers in our wedding cake.  

So for our two married Christmases, both away from mum (and Grandma), I have attempted to make him a successful fruitcake. I’ve even come to enjoy it!  It requires wrapping, slow cooking, rum soaking, and aging.  But I’ve always only added raisins, craisins, citrus peel and some chopped nuts (!).  “Nuts, Annabel!  Christmas cake doesn’t have nuts! That’s not how Grandma makes it.”  But that’s how I like it, none of that gooey fake cherry ick.  

Our tradition is to start it on boxing day – Christmas day already has too much food goodness going on.  Jbird can’t remember my fruit cakes (though I remember him enjoying them) and doesn't really complain, but this year I bought 400g of Christmas fruit mix for HIM.  With cherries and pineapple ickyness.  I’m fairly sure it will be very similar to how his Grandma made it.  They’re soaking in some rum for the required 24 hours with some raisins and craisins to balance it out a bit.  I’ve got nearly 10 weeks to age the cake if I make it tomorrow. It's the first year I've remembered to make it early enough to age as the websites tell me it’s meant to.